Our suburbs threatened by Labor’s high density policy

Mr Clark (BOX HILL) – I raise with the Minister for Planning the issue of continuing overdevelopment in suburbs across the Box Hill electorate, and I call on the minister to abandon his policy to impose high-rise, high-density development across established suburbs contrary to the wishes of the community.

The most recent development causing seemingly well-justified concern is a proposal to build a 17-unit development of three storeys and 35 bedrooms on a single suburban block near the Belmore Road end of Belgrove Avenue in Balwyn. Belgrove Avenue is a suburban street where most properties are single dwellings, some of which are dual occupancy. There is a roughly even mix of single and double-storey dwellings.

Neighbours argue that the planned development does not meet the requirement of being in sympathy with the character of the neighbourhood, it will dominate the skyline in the street and cause a major loss of amenity to the existing residents. I am told that the plans provide for only 22 car-parking spaces, including 3 for visitors. However, given the relatively poor public transport along Belmore Road, it can reasonably be expected that many of the adults living there will require a car.

I am told a traffic study commissioned by the developer refers to seven distinct bus services on Belmore Road, but residents argue that three are school buses only and that only one bus service is a service to the city. I am also told that Belgrove Avenue is used as an all-day car park by staff who work in the nearby Belmore Road strip shopping centre and by those who use the street as a park-and-ride for taking the bus to the city. The entrance to Belgrove Avenue from Belmore Road is already badly choked by parked cars.

Other similar high density proposals are also being made for the electorate, such as an 18-unit development proposed in Whitehorse Road, Balwyn, which neighbours say has problems of overshadowing, overlooking, visual bulk, a double driveway dangerously close to a tram stop and a lack of space for putting out 36 wheelie bins for collection.

I am told that the owners of this block won permission from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal a few years ago for a 12-unit development which did not proceed, but they are now seeking permission for an even bigger development, apparently based on the government’s policy to impose high-density developments along public transport routes.

I have previously raised in this house other massive developments approved by the minister himself, including a 30-unit development in Mangan Street, Balwyn, and a 10-unit development on a small single block in Koonung Street, Balwyn North, as well as the 38-storey tower proposed for the corner of Station Street and Carrington Road in Box Hill, which the minister has referred to a department-led working group which has recently started meeting.

These sorts of developments are changing for the worse the amenity and way of life in our suburbs. Unlike a well-designed and sympathetic development that respects neighbourhood character, the massive and poorly designed developments being encouraged by the government’s policy profit the proponent at the expense of dragging down everyone else. The government must abandon its policy of imposing massive high-density developments on our suburbs and instead give local communities the right to have a say in shaping their future and way of life and preserving what they value and cherish in their neighbourhoods.